Journey to Aktehi by Mark Seelig ~ Sam Rosenthal

[PRO346 / 2017] This 300 copy limited edition CD / 100 copy cassette was funded at Kickstarter. On the border between electronic spacemusic and organic indigenous music, this release is an exhilarating and ecstatic exploration of the subjective land of Aktehi. The primary ingredients in the hallucinogenic soundscapes are Seelig’s Bansuri flute and harmonic chanting. Rosenthal’s subtle electronics, processing and production creates space for the mind-expanding travel akin to an altered state of consciousness.

“This album is alarmingly beautiful and unreal. As if the musicians have been given notes by something we don’t see in the physical realm.” – Matt Rowe, MusicTap

Isotope by Sam Rosenthal

[2017] Digital-only electronic album released in conjunction with Journey to Aktehi. A portion of the track “Isotope” serves as the backing texture for Black Tape For A Blue Girl’s “meditation on the skeleton” from These fleeting moments, and also within the extended version of “meditation…” on the Seelig~Rosenthal album.

blood on the snow

[PRO340 / 2017] This 200-unit limited edition maxi-CD was funded at Kickstarter. 4 all-new songs. Continuing the revival of Black tape for a blue girl’s classic 90s darkwave/ethereal sound. The Blood on the Snow maxi is a name-your-price download available at Bandcamp. Features the same band members as these fleeting moments: Oscar & Dani sing, Nick plays viola, Brian plays drums, Chase plays guitars & synths, Sam wrote the songs and plays guitar & electronics. Sam explains, “The lyrics are darker and bleaker than any of my previous releases; I sense the theme is futility, though perhaps more specifically it’s about dedication to lost & hopeless causes. The dark mood of the last year of American politics created a desolate and worried anxiety as I wrote these songs.”

Projekt’s faux-soundtrack to the film Fifty Shades Darker is built around tracks from As one aflame laid bare by desire; and it opens with a 2011 live version of “Caught by a Stranger” with Valerie on vocals. Recorded in Bucharest. Download the album for free at Bandcamp.

On their 30th anniversary, Black Tape For A Blue Girl returns to their evocative ethereal, neoclassical, gothic roots with an album exploring the existential predicaments of time’s passage, choices questioned, and loves lost. Original vocalist Oscar Herrera rejoins the band after a 17-year absence. His darkly dramatic vocals are complemented by Dani Herrera’s emotional and heartfelt voice, Nick Shadow’s visceral viola, Brian Viglione’s driving drums, and band-founder Sam Rosenthal’s pensive electronics and revelatory songwriting.

These Fleeting Moments, their 11th studio release, is 70 minutes of powerful, gorgeously yearning tracks born from the same place as their 90s classics Remnants of a Deeper Purity and A Chaos of Desire. “For this album,” Sam says, “I picked up threads of our 90s sound. I wrote those intense, passionate songs that Oscar delivers so wonderfully. Adding Nick’s breathtaking strings atop my synth-horn and electronic textures, and writing 25 minutes of instrumentals, really brings this album back to the essential Blacktape sound.”

The limitless single [MET01043] and the bike shop vinyl ep [PRO321] were released earlier in 2016, leading up to the release of These Fleeting Moments.

As Lonely As Dave Bowman: Monolith

[PROJEKT318 / 2015] Purchase the CD at Projekt | A four track, 73-minute electronic solo release, released in a limited edition of 312. It was funded by fans like you, on Kickstarter. Unlike Sam’s work in Black Tape For A Blue Girl, Dave Bowman is full-on electronic music: droning space, wordless drift with long suspended passages. 75 were released in an über limited transluent almost-black plexibox:

Sam Rosenthal: Rye

Purchase the book at Projekt | [2012] Black Tape For A Blue Girl (and Projekt) founder Sam Rosenthal takes a turn as an erotic novelist within the pages of Rye. ‘Look Inside’ Rye with a pdf, or at Amazon by clicking the book cover on the upper left of the page.

Rye takes a sexual somersault through the complexities of desire in a penetrating portrayal of twenty-first century intimacy.

“I spent some time devouring Rye and really really enjoyed not only the story and the characters and the death snark, but also the way that Sam tackled the new thing about relationships. It’s the same as it ever was, and it’s not the same as it ever was. And that melds so beautifully in Rye. Thanks for the good read!” – Carol Queen, The Center for Sex and Culture, San Francisco

Matt is dating Rye, a willfully free androgynous school teacher. Attracted to Matt’s kinkiness and groundedness, Rye develops a taste for his masculinity and her submission. At a weekend SexxCamp retreat, Matt meets Rain, a charming and snarky twenty-something GenderQueer woman with both an attraction and aversion to sex. An unconventional three-way relationship develops, expanding their understanding of polyamory, identity, love and connection.

Forbidden Colours

[ARCHIVE72 / 2012] This mix of “Forbidden Colours” appears on the 2012 Projekt Holiday release, Ornamental. A lush cover of the theme from the 1985 David Bowie film, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (written by David Sylvian / Ryuichi Sakamoto). A haunting, neo-classical track in the vein of the Remnants of a Deeper Purity album. Note: the Bandcamp version has two extra tracks not at iTunes.

Sam Rosenthal: The Passage

[PROJEKT 265 / 2011] Purchase the CD at Projekt | A foray into the realms of pure ambient from Black Tape For A Blue Girl founder/songwriter Sam Rosenthal. The two pieces on the hour-long album submerge the listener in a self-sustaining environment of warm electronics and minimal processings of deep, tender swells and an unresolved, yearning string theme courtesy of long-time Blacktape collaborator Vicki Richards. This is music which gently rotates around its own axis in a time-suspended haze.

Revue Noir: ANTHOLOGY ARCHIVE

A Retrospective

[SHADOWPLAY RECORDS SPR32 / 2008] Purchase the CD at Projekt | A Russian best of featuring Blacktape’s most popular songs, some reworked or remixed. The digital version includes a 2nd disc: the 1991 best of, A teardrop left behind (originally released on Hyperium Records)

As Lonely As Dave Bowman: POD

[PROJEKT 195 2007] Purchase the CD at Projekt | Electronic solo album by Sam. POD brings a new and chilling element to the ambient music genre known as drone. Inspired by the vast isolation of cold, dark space, the absence of human civilization, and the texture of pure sound, there is a curiosity and fascination with those forces that leads to discovery. As Lonely as Dave Bowman becomes a pioneer in the next stage of ambient drone.

Tarnished Single

With a million tear-stained memories (2-CD)

[PROJEKT 145 2003] Purchase the CD at Projekt | Limited edition retrospective released in Germany on Trisol Records and in the U.S. on Projekt. One cd of vocal songs / once cd of instrumentals.

the scavenger bride

[PROJEKT 130 2002] Purchase the CD at Projekt | “Like Dead Can Dance, black tape for a blue girl dramatically flirts with symphonic decay.” – The Philadelphia City Paper. Their eighth release is a lovingly crafted concept album set in 1913 Prague; guest appearances from members of Unto Ashes, Audra, Judith, & Spahn Ranch enliven the thirteen bewitching tracks. Inspired in part by the writings of Franz Kafka and the artwork of Marcel Duchamp, lyricist/songwriter Sam Rosenthal designed the extensively illustrated 24 page booklet of photos, lyrics and stories to enhance his metaphoric tale of a bride and her suitors.

before the buildings fell

The Rope 25 (2-CD 25th Anniversary Remastered Edition)

[PROJEKT 20 2012] The deluxe reissue includes the original album remastered, with a 2nd disc of artists interpreting the songs off The Rope including Black Tape For A Blue Girl’s own re-recording, “Memory, Uncaring Friend (2011)”Purchase CD at Projekt or Download at Bandcamp
On the band’s debut . . . Sam Rosenthal’s subtle electronics and introspective lyrics establish black tape for a blue girl’s stature beyond the realm of the normal “gothic” sound. Creating a timeless blend of Oscar’s emotional vocals intertwined with warm ambient soundscapes.